A Look Ahead: 2024 Design Trends with Forecaster Gretchen Wagner
Perspective is everything—and sometimes, outside insight and inspiration is exactly what’s needed to help us see the bigger picture and think differently about the world around us. Our partnership with Gretchen Wagner gives us this guidance. A talented artist and expert colorist, Gretchen continues to work with the Bentley Design Studio team in ways that fuel our creativity, trigger new ideas and connect macro-influences with product design and development.
We’ve also partnered with Gretchen to develop inspiration palettes focused on trending colors and perspectives for 2024, a curation of four unique color combinations and themes we’ll be seeing throughout commercial design in 2024, in look, feel and practice. Each trend—Tart, Heirloom, Flare and Mythos—balances warm and cool colors, and brings a fresh twist to familiar and classic design choices.
Take a closer look at our 2024 trends and color inspiration.
Trend 1: Tart
Tart showcases a thirst for freshness. The sour taste of green apple on your tongue, or if you’re in the mood for savory, your first bite into a gin-soaked olive. Variable green accents add a punch of flavor to your palette regardless of a warm or cool neutral foundation.
The warm and cool accents in this palette are derived from desaturated tones of green which yield rich and savory flavors. Pair with burnished metals like pewter, brass or bronze.
Trend 2: Heirloom
Heirloom represents the familiar feeling of torn denim or the softness of a hand-pieced quilt passed down through generations. It’s a jean jacket you’ve had since college where the elbows are bleached from the sun and worn thin from years of wear. It’s a trusted colorway that can always be relied upon.
This trend is drawn to the balance of warm and cool product, one that is a true workhorse in any collection. Pairs beautifully with muted tones of amethyst and subtle accents of cornflower blue, which add a purple(ish) warmth to this traditional palette, making it contemporary and fresh for a new year of specification.
Trend 3: Flare
Flare brings a new and authentic take on terra cotta, an accent that has been popular in the past few years. Rooted in a warm neutral palette with bursts of burnt mahogany, the burnt orange is further scorched for richer saturation and significantly more textured.
Its roughness and readiness makes Flare a perfect pairing with warm woods and corrugated metals. And if you’re feeling spicy, Rust can also pull from cayenne pepper or warm cinnamon flavors.
Trend 4: Mythos
Our final trend, Mythos draws on a mediterranean palette dating back to antiquity. Bleached neutrals and green marble textures showcase a richness rooted in mythology. An olive branch as we move into 2024, Mythos pairs perfectly with natural stone textures and concrete for a modern yet earthy palette that conjures the sound of broken marble underfoot as you hike to the acropolis in Athens.
While these four design trends are all unique, they find common ground in freshness and balancing color with your neutrals. We’re excited to see how color continues to evolve and help shape design choices across the A&D industry—in 2024 and beyond.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
As a freelance multi-disciplinary artist, Gretchen Wagner systematically explores the unique qualities and interpretations of color in art and design. She continues to evolve her creative practice with studio GRETCHEN WAGNER, her independent studio in Atlanta, and holds a MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).